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		The craze is here Stanford back on the biggest stage By Tom Zulewski April 1, 2009

	The craze is here Stanford back on the biggest stage: LAS VEGAS--How about that Stanford's Jayne Appel with 46 points against Iowa on Monday night totally unconscious and totally incredible. Some talk show hosts who were doing drive time in some music station formats who didn't use the proper pronunciation of Appel were calling her Apple but one way or the other the fruit doesn't fall very far from the tree at Stanford. Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer is the best coach around one of the best Women's coach's around. The road to the NCAA Championship is through U-Conn which we will see in the national title game. The Cardinal was over due to have a decent year and now it's good to see and their back and the players are taking it in and getting prepared for the next game which is against U-Conn. Looking at the Cal Women they didn't do to bad but they will always be second best in the Women's program. Appel can handle the pressure inside if she can do that and if Stanford can put U-Conn in an early hold but who knows but they got to play U-Conn to a tee and perfectly to win on Sunday.Look for Sunday's game between the Cardinal and Huskies to be physical and rough. Men's Final Four: Michigan State is enjoying being in their fifth Final Four in the last 11 years, that's five, count them five Final Fours and no other school can claim that. Not even some of these highly seeded bracket teams in this tournament. The game on Saturday is at Ford Field but being from Detroit I just wanted to warn the fans and people who were attending the game to watch the neighborhood two blocks away from Ford. Try walking around the neighborhoods around Ford Field, it's not a pretty sight. They tried to make the area around Ford nice and Comerica Park which is right next door for the Tigers. There is the Hockeytown Cafe among others and if you walk just two blocks it's blight and the mood is depressive. The State of Michigan especially Detroit needs something like this just to let go for a week.72,000 people are expected to invade Ford Field this weekend and it's a practical home game for MSU. Michigan State played Louisville on their level and it showed in the second half and that was only the true major surprise and Villanova's miracle shot against Pitt was special but I grade the tournament a D- overall because you didn't have the bright mix of first round upsets and the good teams coming forward and finishing strong. Out of the 14 teams of the top 16 seeds were in the sweet 16 so that is not as much fun. Tom Terrific's predictions: Michigan State will be able to handle U-Conn simply because it's a home game and if the scores are under the 60s it's Michigan State's tempo all the way. Going to North Carolina will be too much for Villanova. NC will be too much for Villanova and Villanova got the break that they needed to get there in the first place. I don't know if that's motivation or inspiration in the first place but they'll win it in another time warp. In a rematch of the December 3rd game at Ford Field which North Carolina demolished Michigan State. North Carolina will do it again although it will be a lot closer. Tom Zulewski contributes to Sportstalk Radio